The present invention relates to fault management, and more particularly to a method of silencing an audible alarm for a fault condition while allowing the audible alarm to trigger for other fault conditions.
In many large and complex electronics systems, for example telecommunications systems, hardware and software components can fail, causing fault conditions. These fault conditions generally prevent the hardware or software components from performing their functions. These systems usually include a comprehensive fault management system, which includes an alarm management system, of which one component typically is an audible alarm that signals the occurrence of a fault, or alarm, condition that may require craftsperson intervention.
When a craftsperson is onsite working towards the diagnosis and resolution of a fault condition, the first thing the craftsperson typically does is to extinguish the audible alarm. The alarm management system typically handles the request to extinguish the audible alarm in on of two ways. The first approach is to disable the alarm for the present occurrence of the fault condition. The second approach is to disable the alarm for all fault occurrences until the alarm is reset manually or automatically.
A problem with the first approach is that subsequent occurrences of the fault condition will again trigger the audible alarm, forcing the craftsperson to repeatedly extinguish the audible alarm while working towards a resolution. Repeated occurrences of the same fault condition while the craftsperson is working towards a resolution of the problem do not typically aid in the problem resolution.
A problem with the second approach is that permanently disabling the audible alarm will cause subsequent alarms, which may be for potentially more critical conditions, to be ignored by the craftsperson.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method by which an alarm management system will allow an audible alarm for a fault condition to be extinguished by a craftsperson, and will allow the alarm to sound for subsequent different fault conditions.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a state machine based method allows an audible alarm for a given fault condition to be extinguished while allowing subsequent audible alarms for different fault conditions.